


On sharing youth and persimmons

by foxy_knowledgeseeker



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Era, During Canon, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Romance, includes persimmons, mai loves it anyway, the fruit of the sapphics, ty lee is a showoff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28727730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxy_knowledgeseeker/pseuds/foxy_knowledgeseeker
Summary: The girls are enjoying a lazy afternoon in the gardens of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Mai and Ty Lee share some fruit and perhaps some feelings.Takes place sometime in Book 1 before the Siege of the North. In my mind, it is somewhere around "Imprisoned."Mailee Week 2021 for Day 7: Childhood/Adulthood for @rllyaangrlly on Tumblr
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Mai (Avatar), Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 29





	On sharing youth and persimmons

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by my own experiences kissing my girl friends when I was young, before I knew what it meant or what it could mean. It gets a little angsty at the end, but alas, that is typical when you are young, in love, and fighting a war.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

An autumn chill had finally come to settle on the gardens of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. With the air crisp and the plants beginning to wither away to their winter bones, the gardens, that in the warmer months were usually full of the chatter of students, were still and abandoned -- mostly. In a far corner, Ty Lee was laid on the grass near the maple tree, her head in Mai’s lap, trying to soak in the last of the sun that autumn had to offer. She couldn’t see Azula from where she lay, but she could hear her gentle breathing close by. Lately, it was a rare occasion for all three of them to be together at the same time and even rarer still that they would be relaxing.

The Avatar was rumored to have returned and with him brought an oppressive anxiety to the Fire Nation and their friendship. Azula, who on a good day was already a perfectionist, seemingly obsessed with her studies, had begun training and studying harder than ever. Ty Lee would briefly blink awake in the earliest hours of the morning to find her slipping from their dorm in training clothes despite having been the last to go to sleep after hours spent pouring over her scrolls in dim candlelight, her nose pressed so close to the pages, Ty Lee was sure she would go cross-eyed. Her aura, usually a strong, self-confident red, had dulled to the dirty orange of obsession and low self-esteem. As it always did, Azula’s mood dominated them all, and Ty Lee had found herself increasingly seeking time alone to escape the negativity. 

Now, Azula had fallen asleep beside them. Ty Lee could hear that her breathing had slowed and evened. She was glad for it; some rest would do Azula good. It also meant that Ty Lee and Mai were now alone in all the ways that mattered.

Ty Lee opened her eyes and gazed up at Mai who was leaning back on her hands, face tilted toward the sky. The sunlight shining through the sparse branches of the maple tree had sent dappled, glowing light over Mai’s face, and a gentle breeze had blown strands of her dark hair across her face. A strand was stuck to her lips, but Mai didn’t seem to notice. Her face, passive as usual, was still.

Ty Lee swallowed, and, as if possessed, reached a hand up to smooth the strand away from Mai’s face. Her knuckles, callused from years of using them as her primary point of impact for chi blocking, brushed against soft skin, and her stomach swooped.

At Ty Lee’s touch, Mai looked down and gave a subtle smile.

Ty Lee felt her face flush at getting caught. “You had a hair,” she said. 

“Like this?” Mai asked and picked up Ty Lee’s braid to brush the end along Ty Lee’s nose, tickling her and making her snort with laughter. 

“Shhhh. You’ll wake up Her Royal Highness.” Mai rolled her eyes over in the direction of Azula. 

Ty Lee pulled herself up from Mai’s lap, immediately regretting the loss of her warmth. “Let’s go then and let the princess sleep for a while,” she whispered in Mai’s ear. Mai smelled clean, like soap and powder.

Mai sighed and pushed herself to her feet, allowing Ty Lee to grab her hand and pull her away toward a persimmon tree across the lawn. It would be just out of earshot of Azula, but they could still see her if she woke up. 

Ty Lee and Mai leaned against the trunk of the tree, legs outstretched, chatting about school and training, and the various drama surrounding their classmates, who was betrothed to whom, whose makeup had looked the worst yesterday, which two girls were fighting about their scores in history class. Well, mostly it was Ty Lee talking and Mai listening. She seldom got involved in any kind of drama, but she always listened to Ty Lee. At one point, Mai began rotating her foot so it tapped against Ty Lee’s gently while she spoke. Ty Lee’s heart leapt into her throat at the contact, but she just kept talking and tapped back with her own foot. They turned it into a little game, trying to mess up the rhythm for the other, so sometimes their feet would smack together in the middle or they would miss the other’s foot on purpose. 

Ty Lee felt a smile blooming on her face. This was her favorite Mai. At school, away from her parents and as long as they were out of sight of any teachers or Azula, apathetic Mai melted away. She still had a casual, soothing aura that felt like dragging your hand through still water, but she also had a bit of playfulness to her. It was a special Mai that seemed to be only for Ty Lee.   
Their game of foot-tapping and their chatter were interrupted a few minutes later by Mai’s stomach rumbling loudly. They both broke into laughter, their heads tilting together, and Ty Lee grabbed Mai’s hand.

“Do we need to feed you?” she asked.

Mai blushed. “Perhaps. But Azula is still asleep.”

Ty Lee glanced up at the canopy of the tree above them. “We don’t need to wake Azula up. Look!” It was somewhat late in the season for persimmons, and all the fruits on the lower branches had been picked away by students between classes or had fallen to the ground where they were swept away by school staff. But near the top of the tree, definitely out of reach of them both was a plump, orange persimmon.

“Ty Lee…” Mai protested, but Ty Lee had already committed to claiming that fruit for her friend. 

“It won’t be so hard, Mai. Watch.” Ty Lee jumped to her feet and began climbing. It really was easy work. No harder than climbing the ladder for the trapeze and only half as tall. Ty Lee loved being up high anyway. She loved to look down so that the faces and the identities of the people below her melted away, and even though she couldn’t see them, she knew all their eyes would be on her and her alone. She hoped Mai was watching and felt her face warm when she looked down to see that, yes, Mai was gazing up at her with a hand at her brow to shield her eyes from the sun.

Ty Lee twisted around so she could sit on the branch next to the fruit. She plucked it from the stem and rubbed it on her top. She wanted it to be clean when Mai got it.

“Catch!” Ty Lee called down to her before holding the fruit out and letting it go. It dropped and landed in Mai’s outstretched hands with a thump that Ty Lee could barely hear from her perch in the tree. 

A real, radiant smile had appeared on Mai’s face at this point. “Are you coming back down to share it with me or not?” she called. 

Ty Lee swung off her branch and landed in a crouch on the ground. “I’d love to share it with you!” She skipped over to Mai and sat on the ground next to her. This time she sat close enough that their shoulders touched, just barely. Mai cleared her throat, and Ty Lee thought she saw a bit of pink in her cheeks. It had gotten a little colder out. Ty Lee wondered if Mai had caught a chill.

Mai pulled out one of her knives and methodically sliced the fruit in two. Her fingers were long and slender with nails meticulously manicured into perfect, delicate shells at the tips.

“Here,” Mai said quietly, holding out one half of the fruit. Their heads were so close together that her breath ghosted over Ty Lee’s cheeks. 

Ty Lee’s mouth went dry. “Thanks,” she answered.

She turned to look at Mai as she grabbed the fruit, but Mai’s face was closer than expected. Ty Lee barely had time to register her nearness before Mai kissed her.

Her lips were soft and gentle and she breathed out a little through her nose as she pressed closer. Ty Lee’s eyes shot wide with surprise at first, then slid closed. Her hand reached for Mai’s hip, to steady herself or to pull Mai closer, she didn’t know. They stayed like that for a moment. Hardly moving, bodies pressed close together, sharing space and heat and breath. Then it seemed as though the kiss was over before it had even begun, and Mai was pulling away, lips, then shoulder, then thigh until there was a gap between their bodies that couldn’t have been more than an inch or two but might as well have been the Great Divide. Ty Lee locked eyes with Mai, who somehow still appeared collected despite the pink blossoming all over her face.

“No, thank you for getting the fruit,” Mai said. The two girls shifted and looked out at the garden around them. They took delicate bites of the fruit; neither looked at the other. Ty Lee’s heart was hammering in her chest and the fruit was heavy in her mouth which was still buzzing from the contact it had had with Mai’s just moments before. She didn’t know what to do, if she should say something to Mai or if it was better not to acknowledge it. Before she could speak up, she felt Mai’s pinky finger slide along the grass, where Ty Lee had placed her hand, and wrap around her own. It was a silent reassurance, and for now it was enough. 

They ate the rest of their fruit in silence, and, when Azula stirred from her spot under the maple tree, they joined their friend and lounged in the remainder of the afternoon sun, sharing only brief glances when they thought Azula wasn’t looking.

Ty Lee did not know that mere weeks from now, Azula would be summoned home as her father prepared a mass assault on the Northern Water Tribe, the largest scale military campaigns since General Iroh’s six hundred-day Siege on Ba Sing Se. She did not know that shortly after Azula’s departure, the Fire Nation would claim the great Earth Kingdom state of Omashu or that Mai’s father would be assigned governor and steal Mai away from her as well. She did not yet know that, with her friends gone, she would be left behind at a school where it usually took the teachers four or five tries to get her name right, and the other girls wouldn’t be bothered to learn her name at all. That shortly after, she would run away from school and join the circus that was visiting the adjacent town. She didn’t know that responsibility and war were coming to claim any of them as fast as they were. For now, they were just girls, sharing a lazy afternoon, and Ty Lee had kissed her best friend, and everything was as it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me at @foxy-knowledgeseeker on Tumblr
> 
> This is the first fic I have ever posted for people to read, and I would love to hear your feedback!


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